Industry News
Saturday, January 20, saw the first of two tech races at Jasna, Slovakia. Today was the Giant Slalom on Petra Vlhova’s home turf and expectations from the home crowd on their local hero were huge. The crowd of roughly 30,000 spectators was tinged with orange, as local fan clubs wore the signature orange beanie the Slovakian skier is known for. But today was an unusual day and things did not really go according to expectations for many and this started with the very first skier.
Run 1
Federica Brignone with bib no 1 slid out on the icy course in Jasna, coming out of the third gate in a backseat position, then did not have enough pressure on the inside ski and skidded out on the fourth gate. Bib 1 is a difficult bib as you have no previous skier to glean insight from. Lara Gut-Behrami in bib no. 2 mastered the same gates with more grip and set the first time on the course for the day with 1:13:15 minutes. Bib #3 was Sweden’s Sara Hector, who catapulted herself into the lead by an impressive 1:10:18, almost three seconds ahead of the Swiss. It was a time no one was able to even come close to, including Mikaela Shiffrin, who finished run 1 a whole second behind the Swede.
What was supposed to be a glorious home race for Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, ended with disaster. Skiing in bib #4, the Slovakian skier skidded out mid-way on the course and shot into the B-nets. The tech specialist did not get up and signaled for help and everyone feared for the worst as the emergency services rushed to her side. The Slovakian skier was stretchered off the course after a long interruption to the race in a sled and her Swiss coach later confirmed that the athlete had torn both her ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and MCL (medial cruciate ligament) of her right knee. It is a devastating blow for the 28-year-old ski racer, who will have to put her pursuit of arch-rival Shiffrin on hold until next season. Vlhova was just 25 points behind Shiffrin in the Slalom standings for the 23/24 season.
It surely would have been a mentally challenging situation for Shiffrin, who had not raced yet, with both Brignone and Vlhova, two of her biggest rivals, both out of the race. One can only imagine what was going through her head while she was waiting for Vlhova to be stretchered off in the bucket. It may have affected many of the skiers going after Vlhova’s crash. It was certainly an unusual race day, with many experienced ski racers struggling on the course. A total of 13 skiers finished run 1 with the dreaded DNF next to their name. While Jasna is not a steep race, the gates are set quite closely together — about 22-24 meters apart — requiring a style of skiing that may not suit everyone.
Canada’s Valerie Grenier, who had won in Kransjka Gora, struggled on the course, as did Marta Bassino, finishing far outside the top 10, in a disappointing 22nd place for run 1. Paula Moltzan in bib #11, who does not really enjoy flat courses, also struggled with the course but managed two saves that could have sent her into the nets, and finished 4.46 seconds behind Hector and 3.26 seconds behind teammate Shiffrin in 21st place.
The course certainly suited New Zealand’s Alice Robinson in bib #15. The 22-year-old put down an aggressive but agile run that saw her finish just 0.05 seconds behind Shiffrin. The next best skier, Zrinka Ljutic, was more than a second and a half behind Robinson, which is a big gap in the top five.
Likewise, excelling on the course was AJ Hurt in bib #23, who won her first career podium in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, two weeks ago. At times the American skier was in fourth place but unfortunately lost some momentum towards the end of the run. Hurt finished run 1 in what was ultimately eighth place, 3.13 seconds behind Hector and 2.13 seconds behind teammate Shiffrin, which is a fantastic result for the 23-year-old skier from Palisades Tahoe.
- Related: U.S. Ski Racer AJ Hurt Wins First-Ever Podium at Slalom at FIS World Cup in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia
“My thought is this surface is very unique. It’s kinda different than anything we have skied so far this year. It feels like you might be losing grip but then if you trust in the equipment, you know, ski with very good confidence, you can be totally clean. And the clean skiing is so fast on this snow. So what I think from Sara is, she was perfectly clean, and even with the ‘turny’ course setting, which is also different than what we’ve skied so far, she could really take the full speed from each turn, stay into the new turn very clean. You know, her timing was just perfect.”
— Mikaela Shiffrin
Run 2
In the tech disciplines, the combined time of two runs counts and only the top 30 qualify for a second run. Starting in reverse order, run 2 saw Germany’s Lena Dürr, first out of the gates. The German certainly struggled with the course but given she has not skied Giant Slalom races in four years and had started with a bib #31, outside of the field of favorites, she can be pleased to have finished in Xth and having earned FIS points for her return to Giant Slalom skiing.
Canada’s Valerie Grenier, as ninth skier of the second run, made up for her disappointing first run, putting down a fast second run that catapulted her into the leader’s seat for a staggering 10 skiers. As 19th skier, Ricarda Haser from Austria was looking like she would end Grenier’s dominance, being a second ahead of the Canadian for most of her run, until the Austrian lost grip on her inside ski causing her to slide onto her side. While she managed to regain control and get back up, it caused her to miss the subsequent gate, ending her bid for the lead. It was ultimately 20th skier Kajsa Vickhoff Lie from Norway who managed to snatch the lead from Grenier, shooting into the lead 0.53 seconds ahead of the Canadian. Lie’s lead was short-lived, as her teammate Thea Louise Stjernesund shot past her as 22nd starter of run 1, finishing with a combined 1.12-second advantage on Lie.
AJ Hurt was up next. The young American looked good on the top section but then lost her advantage on the mid-section. She made up some of the time on the next few gates, but the bottom section was her biggest obstacle again, finishing 0.20 seconds behind Stjernesund. Lara Gut-Behrami managed to squeeze in between those two, 0.09 seconds behind Stjernesund. This left Ragnhild Mowinckel to race before it was the turn for the final five fastest women. Norway’s Mowinckel could not beat Hurt’s time and skied into eighth place behind Hurt. Seventh place is a personal best for Hurt in a Giant Slalom World Cup race.
All eyes were on the top five skiers, and fifth-placed from run 1 was Switzerland’s Camille Rast. The 24-year-old Swiss skier has been having a strong season but on her second run, she could not crack into the top five spots, finishing behind Mowinckel. Then came Croatia’s Zrinka Ljutic who snatched the lead from Stjernesund by 0.07 seconds, but her lead was short-lived. Next up was the Wonder from Down Under, Alice Robinson, as third fastest from run 1. The Kiwi skier fought hard on her second run and extended her lead on the top section to an incredible 1.8 seconds ahead of Ljutic. Robinson looked exhausted at the bottom of the course, but soon a smile inched on her face as the young New Zealand skier realized that with only two skiers left to go, she had a definite spot on the podium. It is Robinson’s seventh career podium and her second podium of the season
Then it was Shiffrn’s turn. With just 0.05-second lead on Robinson, anything was really possible. Shiffrin zoomed down the course in her clean and effortless-looking style, taking the corners precisely and with the needed agility to gain speed on the next turn. This enabled her to extend her lead to 0.42 seconds mid-way down the course, and then 0.71 seconds lower on the course. The crow was cheering loudly as she entered the bottom section with a whole second lead on Robinson and she shot across the finish screaming “What?” when she saw the timing on the big screen. Maybe it had felt too effortless for her — it certainly had looked effortless, or maybe it was all too crazy today with Vlhova’s crash and Brignone’s early DNF. I think she had actually internalized her own analysis of Hector’s great first run, saying you needed perfect skiing and faith in your equipment, and applied it to her second run, enabling her to extend her lead to finish 1.19 seconds ahead of Robinson.
Sara Hector was last to go. While she had a whole second lead on Shiffrin from run 1, Shiffrin’s excellent second run surely would have put pressure on the Swede to put down an equally fast second run. Hector was great on the top section, precise around the gates, and quick to the next gate with quick edging, enabling her to extend her lead to 1.43 seconds. She made some minor mistakes on the lower section of the course, but she crossed the finish line with an incredible 1.52 seconds ahead of Shiffrin. What an impressive run by the Swede. Shiffrin ran over to congratulate Hector on what was truly a remarkable run. It is only Hector’s fifth career World Cup victory.
What an unusual race it was with such big gaps even amongst the top three women and an even bigger gap to fourth place. Many favorites failed while some outsiders performed extremely well on the course in Jasna. It shows that anything is possible in alpine ski racing and that a lot can be dependent on the race course.
